Monday, August 18, 2014

Thousands march on California port to prevent Israeli ship’s arrival

“Let the world register that on 16 August 2014, we prevented the
apartheid Zim liner for the second time from docking and unloading
anywhere on the West Coast,” declared the official statement from the
Arab Resource and Organizing Center when word arrived that the Israeli
cargo ship had chosen to stay at sea, avoiding thousands of protesters
marching toward the northern California port of Oakland on Saturday.

For more than two weeks, Palestine solidarity activists have been
mobilizing their own network as well as reaching out to port workers in
the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union to ensure that
Oakland port would be shut down for the Zim vessel’s usual weekly
arrival.

On Friday night an online ship tracking service showedthat the container vessel Zim Piraeusremained at sea off Monterey, California, rather than docking at Oakland as would have been expected.

Delays in docking may add significant costs for Zim as well as holding up the delivery of cargo to final destinations.

Activists believe this was in direct response to the dockside
mobilization. Organizers called off the original 5:00am Saturday meet-up
time, and sent word to participants via social media and email to rally
instead at 3:00pm, when another shift of port workers would be called
in.

Reem Assil, an activist with the Arab Resource and Organizing Center,
told The Electronic Intifada that protest organizers suspected the
ship’s maneuver toward Monterey was an attempt to diffuse momentum for
the action.

But on Saturday afternoon hundreds of people convened at the West
Oakland BART public transit station to march to the port en masse to
create a picket line.

Solidarity with Ferguson

While the solidarity action was in response to the Israeli
bombardment of Gaza and to a call by the Palestinian General Federation
Trade Union, marchers also called attention to the recent murder of
18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

As around two thousand people filed into the port with drum beats
keeping their energy up, many chanted: “From Ferguson to Palestine,
police brutality is a crime,” “Hands up, don’t shoot!” as well as “Block
the boat! Block, block the boat!” and “Free Palestine, Long live the
Intifada!”

Witnesses said that the unarmed Brown was shot to death by a police officer on 9 August as
he tried to surrender,sparking ongoing protests in Ferguson and around
the country at this latest act of unprovoked police brutality targeting a
young African American man.

Even before the demonstrators made it to the loading dock, however,
organizers got word that the Zim ship would remain at sea and not dock
at the Oakland Port.

AROC members read their victory statement as they continued to march toward Berth 57, where Zim Pireaus was scheduled to dock:

The Zim Pireaus arrived in Northern California by afternoon
yesterday. It could have docked by early Saturday morning. We held the
Zim off in place due to our readiness and mobilization at 5am. We showed
up again at 3pm to stop the scheduled work crews from unloading the
ship. Our actions today have sent a clear message that genocide and
apartheid does not pay in Oakland, or anywhere on the West Coast.

Our action along with the hundreds of thousands of people who
mobilized worldwide in solidarity with the resilient Palestinian people
should send a clear and resounding message that the beginning of the end
for the Zionist apartheid regime in Palestine is upon us.

Once at Berth 57, a line up of speakers from some of the 70 different
organizations that had endorsed the action read statements in
solidarity.

Eyad Kishawi, a local activist and frequent speaker, told the crowd:
“As the people in Gaza under occupation have a right to defend
themselves… so do the people in Ferguson from a racist system.”

According to local reports, the Zim Pireaus is now scheduled to dock tonight, 17 August, and the Marine Traffic website shows it steaming toward the San Francisco Bay.

Assil said that AROC is excited about building on the momentum of the
event for future actions, as well as the strong Palestinian solidarity
activist and worker coalition that this event helped to forge.

Quotes

"There is beauty in truth, even if it's painful. Those who lie, twist life so that it looks tasty to the lazy, brilliant to the ignorant, and powerful to the weak. But lies only strengthen our defects. They don't teach us anything, help anything, fix anything or cure anything. Nor do they develop one's character, one's mind, one's heart or one's soul." Jose Harris

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